Alone in a crowd
by DevinePhoenix
Summary: Yuuno is slowly working himself down in his demanding job and doesn't care. Hayate, finding his horrible condition, managed to get him to leave the office for a day. Unfortunately his free day happened to be ruined by an anonymous assassin with way too much free time and gadgets. With a new power at his fingertips will he make it through the most bloody battle he's ever fought?
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Nanoha though I sometimes wish I had an Intelligence Device.**

X

X

* * *

><p>Alone in a crowd<p>

Stars shone down brightly on the world of Mid-childa. The glaring, man-made lights of the city competed with the stars for dominance, seeking to drown out the night. The dark city line loomed on the horizon like an army. At first glance, the place would resemble a highly populated earth. Then a bright streak of a mage on a late night errand would flash overhead and you would be forced to reconsider.

There was a building. A certain building, well known by book lovers all over Mid-Childa and the officials of the TSAB, The Infinity Library, a massive stronghold of knowledge. Every record that ever existed lay entombed there. Records of distant civilizations that long fell to dust. In a way, it might be considered the root of everything. This was all well and good if someone could only FIND what they were looking for in the disorganized mess.

However, thanks to several years of sleepless nights, a brilliant young archeologist final put the shelves in order. For the first time in Mid Childan history, the library worked.

Requests for information ran day and night through this information central. Steady streams of aides and secretaries flowed through the archives, punctuated by odd groups of civilians.

Shifts of librarians worked the lower levels, assisting the public and lower level information requests. Yet despite that the library closed promptly at nine 'o clock every day and all the employees were sent home. Even after all workers had been evicted the lights of the library burned long into the night, most of the time never turning off. Only one person ever remained after hours.

The one employee that hardly ever left.

It was rare to see the lights in the library truly turn off but It came as no surprise when the internal lights flickered off at eleven o' clock. Most people knew this happened every three days or so, when it was compulsory for it to properly close to avoid burning out the power supply.

The shadow of a man slipped out the door and punched in a security code with the defeated air of having done so one time too many. He ignored the familiar hum as the security wards activated, continuing toward the street. The library was quite well defended, considering the amount of confidential information it held. All kinds of wards protected the building, from hostile sensors to physical defense shields.

As the man set foot on the street a streetlight flared his haggard features into focus.

A dark green overcoat was hanging limply on a thin frame. He was skinny, frightfully so, from the long shifts that were required of him. Meals were often skipped to accommodate his work. Long blond hair had been tied back into a thin ponytail to keep hair out of his face. He had no time to cut his hair and it had gradually grown out over the years.

Three days ago, when his long shift had started, his hair had been pulled back neatly. Now, several locks had escaped the ribbon and fell messily into his face. Normally he wouldn't like to look untidy but today he was too tired to care.

Defeated emerald eyes stared at the pavement, shadowed by his crooked glasses. Idly, he wondered how long he could keep this up. Sooner or later, he knew, his body would give out due to the immense stress he placed on it.

Yuuno didn't mind.

People needed information _now_ to help save lives. If he could save people with his information then so be it.

He doubted anyone would remember him when he finally reached his limit. Over the years his friends had drifted apart from him, only ever calling on official business. He didn't mind, they had more important things to do, but every now and then he would wish that they would talk to him again. The only one who would still come to talk to him was Hayate.

For some unknown reason, the brown haired commander insisted on coming for her information personally. She would make him smile with her wild antics, ask how he was doing, the only person who ever did so anymore. Sometimes one of the Wolkenritter would accompany her or, as of recently, Vivio.

Vita still held a grudge from their first match, when she couldn't break his shield. She liked to pester him but he was fine with that, at least she cared. She was the regular one that would accompany Hayate.

Vivio was hyper, but a good listener. She loved listening about Ancient Belkan history and stories about the person she was based off of, Saint Kaiser. He enjoyed her company. Her child innocence would rub off on him and he would feel a lot better for a few days.

It was only due to sheer willpower that He was still going.

Bleary with lack of sleep he stumbled along, finding energy to give any passerby a pleasant smile. At last, the welcoming neon sign of his destination came into view. He slumped inside the small diner.

Instantly a waitress was by his elbow, guiding him to his usual seat at the counter. He didn't have to say anything anymore because he came here too often. A bowl of soup slid to a stop before him. Though he was exhausted he knew he had to eat something before heading back to work the next day.

He slowly began to slurp down the soup welcoming the warmth. The staff was giving him sympathetic looks. He was a regular. Every few nights when he got off shift he would come down here and have a bowl of soup. Each night they would see him getting worse and worse.

It was disturbing to watch someone you knew slowing deteriorating. Even a random customer who had gradually wormed his way, unknowingly, into the hearts of the staff. The bartender had tried to get him on solid food a couple months back but he had declined the sandwich with that quiet sad smile of his. The cook had created a special soup for the ragged man, made specifically to provide him with all the nutrients he lacked in one concentrated bowl without him knowing. The waitress had taken it upon herself to always escort him in when he was near collapse and make sure his seat was free.

Trying to pull him out of his slowly spiraling self destruction had become an important project to them, made all the more difficult because he had a tendency to refuse help of all sorts. They had gotten him to sleep for fourteen hours in the back room once but in the morning he was gone once again only to show up four days after, barely managing to stagger in.

The waitress slammed a glass of milk down on the table, causing him to start with surprise. Even as he opened his mouth to protest, the brunette's glare made it clear that there was to be no argument. Sensing a lost cause he meekly accepted the warm drink, unaware of the identical smiles of relief spreading across the three's faces.

A concerned voice started him out of his haze of exhaustion.

"Yuuno!"

The head of the Infinity Library stared blankly at the familiar brown haired commander for a few seconds before he recognized whom he was staring at.

"Hayate?"

She looked tired, but not as bad as he was. Her exhaustion was the tiredness of a stressful day, easily fixed with a few hours sleep. He absently noted with a dark chuckle, he had long gone past that point. Part of him was glad that she wasn't overworking herself to the point of collapse like he was. Concerned blue eyes studied him.

"Are you okay, Yuuno?"

He forced a smile to his face.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You don't look too well…"

He shook his head resolutely "I'm just tired, forget about it."

He drained his bowl and dropped his money on the counter. The bartender shook his head.

"Its on us."

"Keep it." He insisted and rose unsteadily off of his stool.

He turned to the door, only to see the world blur suddenly. He swayed, his knees weak. To his surprise, Hayate threw his hand over her shoulder and let him lean on her.

"I'm fine…" slipped past his lips in a tired sigh.

"Yuuno!" She sounded like she was about to cry.

He pushed her away, attempting to stand on his own; he wobbled for a grand total of five seconds before he collapsed.

"Let me help you!"

He grit his teeth, ignoring her plaintive cry.

"I…can still go on…"

At her limit of watching her friend's pain, she darted forward catching his weight. As he opened his mouth to protest, she snapped.

"Just shut up and let me help you."

Supporting Yuuno she dragged him off to his apartment, sending a notice to her knights.

_Sorry guys, I don't think I'll be home this evening. I ran into Yuuno, he's in bad shape. Shamal, can I get you to stop by in the morning?_

_Of course, Hayate. You will be sleeping over by Yuuno-kun I assume?_

_Yeah. I don't think I can trust this idiot to not do something stupid._

A mental sigh.

Okay then.

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

_Hayate's Pov_

I cut off the conversation and gave my childhood friend a sidelong glance. He was a wreck. His normally neat hair was frazzled and unkempt. Knowing him the last time he had eaten anything was probably several days ago. I was both worried and terrified for him, he was more like the others than he realized. Them won't admit they're hurting until something serious happens.

It was like he was wasting away before my very eyes. Each time I saw him he was getting thinner and thinner. A defeated exhaustion had set in. He was slowly killing himself, knew it and accepted his fate. He had no more strength to fight.

It was as if all his will to live was gone.

Don't get me wrong, It wasn't as if he was blatantly suicidal. He was of the worse kind, the quiet ones who did things slowly and by the time you know what happened it would be at the funeral. He would work himself into an early grave, like the over enthusiastic Nanoha.

Dragging his flagging carcass up the stairs to his apartment was difficult but not impossible. Using the handrails to drag us up, We gradually inched upwards to his second floor apartment.

I wondered why he lived out here, alone on the city's edge. The building was a uniform dull gray but appeared to be pleasantly habitable. It looked like a place that a lower ranked mage would occupy not the place that a high ranking, well paid Head Librarian would take up residence.

Somewhere along the way Yuuno gave up on fighting against my grip, deciding it was not worth the struggle to escape in his state.

We halted before a nondescript door will a dull brass number attached.

"Can you stand?" I ask him gently.

Wow.

The dull light of the corridor really threw his face into the worse light. There were deep purple bags under his eyes that fairly shouted the amount of sleep that he had gotten these past few days. None.

If it wasn't for those nifty hygiene spells he might have reeked a lot worse but as it was, he was smelling pretty bad. Dented glasses were dangling off his nose, moments away from falling off completely but he didn't seem to care too much.

To my surprise, his green greatcoat was stylish but as I held onto the material I could feel the months of wear and tear on the fabric. The thing was tattered and...ew...was that an ink stain?

Okay, I have experience with looking after five family members. Having another one shouldn't prove to be too difficult. None of them had ever been this bad off however...

Something inside me twisted painfully as Yuuno nodded tiredly and adjusted his weight. I slowly released him, ready to catch him if he fell again. He smiled that quiet smile of his but stood, swaying precariously, on his own two feet.

Digging in his pocket, he fished out a single key. With exhausted fingers, he jammed in the lock and turned. The plain door swung inwards. He took one step into his apartment and dropped like a rock. I let out a panicked cry.

"Yuuno!"

I knelt down and rolled him over with quivering hands. A quick check of his pulse assured me that the head librarian was still among the land of the living. Relief flooded through me as I felt over his heart. Then I frowned and counted his heartbeat rate. It fluttered faintly under my fingertips.

From what I knew from first aid, one's heart was not supposed to be beating that slowly or that quietly.

Dismissing the problem for now, I hoisted him up again and dragged him towards the couch. Despite his lack of size he was quite heavy while unconscious. I rested him down and looked around the place I assume he called 'home'.

It was a regular apartment, nothing special. The place was too clean though. There were no obvious signs of habitation and it looked vaguely deserted.

I spied a door off to the side and my curiosity got the better of me. Cautiously, I opened the door. The sheets were neatly folded and a stack of books perched precariously on a table. My eyes widened as they fell on a single framed picture.

It was a picture of us, not long after the Book of Darkness incident. Everyone was stuffed into the frame grinning and smiling at the photographer. I was still immobilized in my wheelchair in the center, holding my tome and staff on my lap. Yuuno was out to the side but the expression on his face was one I hadn't seen in years. Pure happiness.

I tore myself away from the memories and picked up the blankets on the bed. Stepping carefully into the kitchen I pried oven the fridge door. Empty, as I expected, save for a single bottle of water.

"Arg! Yuuno, why do you have no food!?"

I could've done with something warm…

With a suffering sigh, I snatched up the bottle and started to open it. My easy steps echoed in the ghostly apartment. I took a quick sip of water before carefully putting it down on the dusty coffee table.

I approached the slumped body of my friend cautiously. Slack in unconsciousness, his face looked years younger. It did nothing to diminish the bags under his eyes though. Curiously, I noted a blemish on his face and leaned closer. With a delicate finger, I traced the thin scar on the side of his face.

"When did he get this?" I wondered with worry.

How could I not notice such an obvious head injury? I mean, I only stopped by once a week or so, something like this would've been obvious! Shoving that rather puzzling matter aside, I slipped off his heavy coat, struggling to pull it off of his comatose body. Rather simple in design with pale green edging, the dark green helped him cut an imposing figure. When he was not passed out from fatigue that is. As it was, without it he looked surprisingly small.

A quick glance to his exposed forearms made me let out a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't suicidal. A secondary glance revealed another lengthy scar of a similar manner to the one on his head running along the back of his hand.

"Where did he GET all these?"

With a shake of my head, the coat was quickly picked up from the floor. I stared at the positively filthy thing.

"Is it standing up on its own?"

Sad to say, the poor coat had reached such an unfortunate stage in neglect that It was as stiff as a board. Holding it as far away from myself as possible I carefully located the washing machine and dumped it in.

_hm...Settings, settings. Small, medium, large, mud, blood, library uniform, coat..._

"-The hell?"

I stared at the modified washing machine, vaguely remembering that Shari had installed a blood washing cycle on my own washing machine. Mud I could understand but blood? Yuuno wasn't a fighter by any means! The last time he truly fought was years ago!

"...I suppose its the Coat."

I didn't even bother to question WHY there was a setting especially for Yuuno's work clothes or his coat. Sometimes you just don't want to know these things.

Throwing a blanket over Yuuno's unconscious form as I passed, I made for the bathroom. Thankfully he had soap and clean towels. The bathroom was quite small, as it was only an apartment, with the walls painted a plain blue. Everything was clean and out of all the rooms in the entire residence, the bathroom showed most signs of life. It was clean, lacking the dust that the other rooms had to begin with.

The shower itself had a sizable amount of grit around the drain that I stared at with amusement. How much dust can he collect in one day?!

I had a relaxing steaming shower, making sure to scrub away all the stress of such a hectic day at work. My day was bad, but facing Yuuno like that...

Well It made my 'bad day' seem like a walk in the park. I pulled spare clothes from storage on my device and dressed quickly.

My knights knew I was fine and wouldn't be coming after Yuuno with a shotgun any time soon. Well…Zafira might…

…

I pity Yuuno if that happens. Zafira can get scary even IF I'm his mistress. I have no idea how he developed an overprotective father attitude towards any male that attempted to talk to me. He actually DID scare off the last guy trying to ask me out on a date with an archaic shotgun he bought at an antiques store. It had no ammo but the poor guy didn't know that.

…

Its kind of sad when things like that become the norm around here.

I think this qualifies for a day off tomorrow. Yuuno needs some rest and I'm going to make sure he goes NOWHERE tomorrow. Short of tying him to a chair, which would admittedly be fun but not good for his health, he was going to attempt to go back to work. Time to plot...

* * *

><p><em><strong>X<br>**_

_**X  
><strong>_

_**There**** it is! I've also had this buried in my archive**** of written stuff for a while so I figured I'd post it!**_

_**X  
><strong>_

_**NB- I rewrote some of it to make it longer and better! (I hope anyway)  
><strong>_


	2. A day off?

**I do not own Nanoha unfortunately.**

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

**_Alone in a crowd_**

_**A day off?**_

_Yuuno pov…_

I woke up feeling the familiar scruffiness of my couch underneath my fingertips. I was…in my apartment? Hadn't I fallen asleep at the library? Slowly my incoherent brain began to join the pieces together. I closed my eyes.

Oh.

Hayate took me home.

Mentally I cursed myself. I didn't want her to see me like that; she would worry uselessly about me now.

The sound of rushing water reached my ears.

_Eh?_

Dishes clinked and someone was humming the first few lines of a song that sounded suspiciously as though it belonged in an anime.

A heavenly aroma wafted under my nose and I opened one eye. A plate of toast glared at me.

"Eh?!"

"Get up already! I know you're awake!" A familiar voice yelled.

Pushing myself up I studied my intruder with confusion.

"Hayate? What are you doing here?"

Dressed in casual clothes, the SS rank commander had shoved a plate of freshly cooked breakfast under my nose. She rolled her eyes.

"I took you home ferret boy!"

I sighed. Were they ever going to drop that? It not my fault I could shape shift into a ferret…

That smelt good…

Even my stomach, which had been conditioned to survive on soup and the bare minimum, was growling. Hayate's cooking was legendary after all. Still I hesitated.

"Er…Where did you get food from? My fridge is empty."

"I went grocery shopping."

My eyebrow rose. She had enough time to go out and shop? With a sense of dread I noticed the beams of sunlight streaming into my living room. I slowly got up.

"Hayate…what time is it?"

"Oh, around nine."

"NINE!" I yelped and dashed for my coat. I was so late! This is bad, this is bad, this is bad…

Hayate planted herself infront of the door. "No! You're not going anywhere near that library. You have a day off today."

I froze. A _day_ off?!

"I didn't organize anything! I have a lot of work to do!" I panicked, trying to get my stubborn friend to move.

"All taken care of!" She grinned smugly.

I facepalmed. "…You organized this didn't you…"

Roll of the eyes.

"Of course I did! Now go get a bath you smell terrible."

"I do not!"

She wrinkled her nose "You're immune. Now go before I freeze your butt!"

"Yes _mother._" I tossed over my shoulder. Despite myself I could feel a grin spreading across my face.

I turned hot water up to full and steamed myself in a vicious torrent of water. Brown water flowed down the drain from the accumulated dust of the Library. I washed out my annoyingly long hair and pondered.

A day off.

To tell the truth, I haven't taken a day off in several months, perhaps years. Maybe I could finally cut my hair to a more manageable length. The ponytail was a bit too girlish for my liking. I chuckled. I knew somewhere along the line, I'd just get annoyed and just chop off the ponytail. It would look messy but I had stopped caring about appearance since I had stopped Archeology work.

I dried myself and dressed in 'casual clothes'. I never used these clothes as I was always in my work uniform so it was a bit odd for me. A Dark green T-shirt, long blue jeans and comfortable sneakers. It was a nice change, for once.

I toweled down my hair and tied it back up. After the bathroom was cleaned to a satisfactory extent, I headed for the kitchen.

"Eat." Hayate insisted.

I complied good-naturally. Food. Honest to goodness real food. I couldn't remember the last time I ate properly. I stuffed myself. Or at least, I tried. My stomach couldn't adapt to so much food after such a long time of starvation and cramped up somewhere along the way. I knew medicine well enough to know that when you were starved your stomach shrinks. I ate as much as I possibly could, which wasn't much really.

To me it seemed like heaven though Hayate gave me a worried glance.

"Thanks Hayate! But you know, you didn't have to do this…"

She gave me a sharp look. "What was I supposed to do? Leave you alone after seeing how much in a bad shape you are?"

I winced. "You don't have to worry about me…"

"And that's the problem! You don't even worry about yourself so I have to do it for you!"

I opened and closed my mouth a few times. Hayate waved a spoon, threateningly in front my nose.

"Promise me you'll look after yourself."

"Hayate…"

"Promise! I'm not losing you like I lost Reinforce…"

I started at my friend in something close to shock. Apparently I had hit a nerve by accident. I winced again; I was making her relieve the pain of her lost family member by my foolishness.

"I promise." I said solemnly. "I won't make you worry again."

Hayate smiled radiantly and plopped down on a seat. "Good!"

I chuckled at her rapid change of mood and attacked my food again trying to get some more down before I had to go back to my self inflicted hell. Hayate joined me suddenly, devouring her share of the feast. Minutes passed with the only sound being that of our chewing.

"Hey Yuuno, have you seen Nanoha and Fate recently?" She grinned, intending to joke about the two.

I stiffened and lowered my head. Her teasing grin changed to one of worry.

"Yuuno?"

"I saw them not too long ago." I lied.

Hayate's eyes narrowed. "You're a bad liar, as always."

I twitched. "Fine, you want to know?" I sighed, this was going to end badly.

"I haven't seen anyone other than you since the JS incident."

I counted to five, waiting for the explosion.

"WHAT?! That was five months ago!" Hayate was on her feet with her eyes blazing.

"Calm down Hayate. They're busy people."

"But…but…"

"Its fine." I stated firmly, ending the conversation.

She shook her head and picked up the dishes. I stood up and walked towards the sink.

"I'll wash the dishes."

"No you don't! You are not doing anything today!"

"What do I do then?" I asked mildly.

"Uh, go take a walk or something. Ah, I know! You can go and get milk!"

I sweatdropped. "I thought I wasn't supposed to-"

"Come on, get going now!" She ordered with a wide grin.

"If you insist." I sighed, reversing my direction. "A walk might a nice change of pace."

"Take your time," She smiled. "Don't over strain yourself."

I shrugged and grabbed my coat. "Its just a walk."

I paused for a moment. "Did you wash this?" I asked, my shocked gaze never leaving the unmistakably _clean_ greatcoat.

She looked up from scrubbing briefly. "Huh? Oh, yeah. It was a little...well..."

"Revolting?" I offered helpfully.

She glanced in my direction. "I suppose that might work. When was the last time you washed it anyway?"

"Um..." I rested my hand on the doorknob and thought about it. "I don't remember."

"Eh?!"

I strolled leisurely onto the street. People were on the wide avenue, shopping, rushing late for work or just enjoying themselves. It was a cheerful bright morning. I couldn't help but smile. Everyone was bustling about, calling greetings and news.

It was nice to see the people whose lives I help to save. These were the people I risked my health for.

A group of close-knit housewives shuffled along gossiping merrily. Three young girls pointed at me and giggled as I passed. I shuffled uncomfortably as one of them squealed.

"He's hot!"

A quick glance around the street revealed no good looking teenage boy or any other male under forty except for...

_Me?_

And I realized the three of them were staring at me. Blushing furiously, I pretended I hadn't heard them and continued with a slightly quicker pace.

_How awkward..._

An energetic child bounced along happily at his mother's heels. I smiled at such pure childhood innocence.

His mother let go of his hand to observe something in a shop window and he looked around curiously. Spotting something shiny on the road, he toddled into the asphalt death trap.

My blood froze.

I went automatic. I rushed towards the oblivious child as the mother screamed. A car was speeding closer, the driver frantically mashing breaks. With a quick flick of the wrist, layers of pale green circles materialized before the car, slowing it down enough for me to snatch the child out of harm's way.

I handed the child back to his hysterical mother.

"Thank you!" She wailed "Thank you so much!"

"Its okay." I smiled, relieved to have avoided a tragedy. "Anyone else would have done the same."

"That was amazing!" A man commented. "Are you a combat mage?"

I chuckled softly at the irony. "Far from it. My combat days are long over."

Surprise showed on the man's face. To hear such a veteran statement from a person barely over twenty was highly unusual.

"What spell was that?" The awestruck boy I saved asked.

"Eh, It was only a movement slowing barrier…" I rubbed the back of my head, embarrassed by the attention. "Its nothing big…"

"That was so cool!"

"Er, excuse me please." I excused myself. "I have to be going."

I slipped into the crowd, away from the concentration. I wasn't fond of people exalting my abilities. It made me uncomfortable. I wasn't THAT good…

I walked among them, but I was always alone. I may not have been so lonely if I applied for a Device of my own but I didn't want one. Something like a Device was wasted on a Librarian. Besides after a while I had a kind of fierce pride about being able to fight on my own terms. It was all MY power and MY skill, not some computer's. And Yet, somehow, my casting was on level with a Device's.

Still…

It felt so peaceful to walk, even alone, as I was, in a crowd of so many cheerful people. I was content.

A quick stop by the grocery got me Hayate's demanded milk. Feeling guilty I bought a bar of chocolate to repay Hayate for her help. I strolled along, whistling a hyper tune.

It was a nice day.

Then the air was rendered with the shrill screams.

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

****Oohh! Cliffhanger! I'm so evil!****


	3. The Unknown Hero

**I tried to make Yuuno epic...**

**Please tell me if it was an epic fail or not, so review!**

**I don't own, If I did, Yuuno would've had a lot more screen time. BTW- see a series called Heroman, I swear, The main character is frigging Yuuno**. **same hair and eye colour and same kind of attitude.**

X

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

_**The Unknown Hero**_

Chapter three

Blue video screens sprang to life over the street.

"Civilian please evacuate to shelters!" a TSAB ground commander announced. "Several squads of gadgets have appeared over the city. I repeat, all civilians please evacuate to shelters!"

Panic erupted on the street. Confusion reigned as all the happiness of the day vanished. Several tense minutes of havoc passed. I weathered the rush of people, reading myself to erect barriers to protect the population if necessary.

Someone further down the street yelled in terror. "Gadgets! They're coming this way!"

The flow of people reversed the other way up the street, fleeing from the machines. With my feet planted firmly on the sidewalk I endured the blunt force of many bodies pressing against me. Someone else screamed.

"They're this way too!"

"They're firing!"

"IRON DEFENCE."I thundered.

My pale green bubble encompassed the length of the boulevard keeping out the gadgets for the time being. Multitudes of energy beams collided with the barrier.

Confused voices muttered around me. The crowd was still.

I took a deep breath and for the first time in a long time, I launched myself into the sky. Instantly, the crowd's eyes were on me. I twitched out of pure habit. Burying my nervousness, I raised my voice.

"I've erected an Iron defense over the street. Please grab all your belongings and family members. I'll set up a teleport array in the meantime."

Panicked as they were, they obeyed instantly, not bothering to question me. I thought I could see the face of that man from earlier staring at me, questioning. I had said I was no Combat mage but I carried myself like one. Ignoring the man, I closed my eyes, calculating the immense mathematical equations required for a dimensional transfer of this size.

Several green circles spiraled to life on the ground. The pale green midchildian transport circles glowed faintly colouring the air a calming green.

"Please get on one of the arrays. Quickly! It'll transport you near to a shelter."

The crowds compressed onto the magic circles obediently. I exhaled.

"Spatial Teleportation array, activate."

The circles lit up, staining the air greater with my soothing green. The next second, I was standing alone on the street. Without people to protect, I drew my iron defense closer to preserve my mana.

Rolling my shoulders, I prepared myself within my green bubble. I wasn't going to let these gadgets advance further. I quickly stretched out my kinks, wincing at every crack.

"...And that's what I get for retiring." I grinned dryly.

Is it just me or are they swarming around me?

I had no barrier jacket and hadn't seen combat for some time, but there are some skills that never leave you. Battle experience was one of them. I sank into a stance, preparing my strategy. I was a defensive mage; I knew absolutely no truly aggressive spells.

This was going to be hard.

Not impossible, but hard.

A red screen blinked into existence besides me, catching me off guard. A dark shadowed figure grinned at my surprise.

"Ah, Yuuno Scrya I presume?"

"Eh?" I blinked.

"I take that as a yes." The dark figure chuckled and folded his arms in a businesslike manner, his face remaining in shadow. "Now Mr. Scrya I have some business deals to inform you of."

"Business deals?"

"Yes. You see, quite a large number of people want you dead."

Numb shock. What? I didn't do anything to annoy people. I went out of my way to smile and be pleasant to people, even the higher ups. It didn't make sense! Who would have a grudge against me?

"You know too much information. Just thought you might want to know why you're going to die."

The assassin was all business now.

"As per my contract, you will perish here, Yuuno Scrya!" he announced dramatically.

The scarlet vid screen vanished.

"What…just happened?" I muttered. "These gadgets are all after me?"

Several of them were ramming my shield, seeking to overwhelm me with AMFs and superior numbers. I needed to figure out my plan of action NOW. I was quite resistant to AMFs due to my prolonged time in the Library's upper levels where sealed Lost Logia were stored. Even so, I couldn't sit here forever if this attack was my fault. I had three choices.

Use my barrier armour, a set of intensely manipulated barriers and shields formed into impenetrable armour for close range combat. I'm not too good at close though…

Teleport the gadgets into outer space? Bad idea.

Use that combat spell…

I sighed. I didn't want to use the only combat spell I had available to me but I had no choice. I held out my hand, palm upwards, and announced firmly.

"I summon page one hundred and eleven of the Hades Tome."

With a glow of dark energy a single page appeared above my hand.

During an archeological dig I had been called in to investigate some anomaly. Instead I found the master of the Hades Tome in a frozen stasis. By accident, I released him. To pay back his debt he granted me the use of a single page in his tome. A combat spell just in case I even needed it.

It only had one use before the page returned to its tome.

I had to make it count.

With a brief scan of the already memorized words I began the chant.

"That is not dead,

Which can eternal lie,

But in strange forgotten eons

Even death may die."

"Eon Chains, Engage!"

I dropped my barrier. Instantly the gadgets opened fire. Without thinking I raised my arm to call a round shield, but what appeared before my palm was anything but. A simple dark pentagram magic circle blazed to life. Automatically, chains erupted from the pentagram, slicing through the bullets and striking at the machines themselves, tearing through them with a frightening ease. Dark green chains rose up with a mere thought, blocking another barrage.

Information was flowing through me with maddening intensity. It hit me like a brick to the head. Raging darkness and insanity seeking to overwhelm its host.

_diediediediedie-_

"SHUT UP!" I roared, clutching my head.

Around me my new found weapons went berserk, spiraling and slashing in a thick spiderweb of chains. More appearing and filling the sky. Lazily, several lengths wrapped around my arms. The voice almost seemed to purr.

_You're not going anywhere._

Furiously I grabbed a length, ignoring the chafe on my bare hands, and pulled. The effect was immediate though not exactly intended. The network enveloping the sky constricted. The Gadgets were crushed with a ruthless efficiency. Nearly two dozen units exploded from the crash, painting the sky a brilliant orange. The voice cackled.

_More! More! Burn you maggots!_

Its insane laughter rent the scorched atmosphere. The sheer insanity and _wrongness _of the laugh made me shudder. What magic type was this? It matched neither magic systems and was currently screaming for him to wreck havoc on the world. Was this Axel's magic? How could he live through such insanity and yet not lose his own?

Transport circles appeared from nowhere and then the sky was filled again. The vicious magic purred with glee. Before I could stop it an insane cackle forced its way up my throat. Horror filled me, what was happening to me? I grabbed another handful of chains an yanked it downwards. The so-called 'binds' rent the world, Slashing claws across sky. Wrecks littered the ground and flames dyed the sky scarlet.

More kept coming.

A stray bullet grazed my arm, drawing blood. In an instant the bloodcurdling voice was gone. Unsteady as I suddenly regained control of my body, I staggered in the air. My thoughts were my own and free of the corrupted presence once more.

A bolt of pure agony seared my face. A suicidal unit rammed me and joined its brethren by exploding. Problem? It was floating in front my face.

"WOOOOAAAAAAAAH!"

...and I was introduced to my nice friend the wall. And then the wall decided 'Oh no , that's not good enough, let's drop a building on him!'. Lying in a crater on the wall which had nearly folded in two from the impact, I looked up.

"I have a feeling I should be cursing some higher entity for this but right now, I don't care anymore."

...and then the building fell on me. THANKS WALL. (note sarcasm)

Okay, that hurt.

Lying, half crushed under rubble with blood staining my frame I simply sighed. Anyone else might've started to curse or complain. I? I just accepted it like I did all my other pains and blocked it off. I raised my arm in the little space I had.

"Come, my chains of Eon."

A flash of the darkened green pentagram and a shriek of chains. The rubble exploded. A few of those infernal machines received stones to their face and crumpled like tin cans.

Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to rise out of my crater. Blood was dripping down my face and mingling with my sweat. My right eye wasn't opening. I refused to think about what had probably happened to it.

Determination raged in my remaining eye. I was NOT going to die like this.

Once again my dark chains of Eon rose up beating back the assaulting machines. They lashed through the air, crushing or beating them into submission. Piles of fallen gadgets littered the street, yet they still came.

Idly I wondered if Hayate was okay. She had most likely rushed off to take command of the situation. The rush of determination was fading. Now that I thought about it, my death would have no real consequences. Someone new would take over the Library and that would be that. The only mourner would be Hayate, no one else would miss me.

My charges were becoming reckless as I sought to end it all. Ether those gadgets would fall or I would. Though I was leaning in favour of the latter at the moment. I accumulated dozens of minor injuries and grazes during this vicious airborne dogfight that I ignored and went on. Heaps of the fallen coated the street with wreckage. I felt strangely at peace with these thoughts.

I was fighting for my life over a city I loved yet I didn't care. My health was never one of my main priorities anyway, It was somewhere down by tenth if it even made it onto the list at all.

Flames heated the air to a uncomfortable stifle. I was fighting over a flaming wasteland, standing on a hill of my foes, destruction ravaging the street.

Even as I said I wasn't going to use my armour, I was still forced to summon the gauntlets to knock away gadgets that tried to ram me. The interlocked glowing green sigils faded in and out as I summoned them as needed.

"Yuuno!" A voice yelled anxiously.

"NO, Hayate! Get out of here!"

Hovering in all her grace with her knight armour she paused, surprise crossing her face. Then she saw me. I could see the horror in her eyes. My breaths were coming in short gasps now. I had no idea how long I had been fighting, but I was most likely looking horrible. My blood was staining my clothes and my favourite coat she had cleaned only yesterday had become tattered.

"Get out of here!" I pleaded.

I didn't want her to see this. Either my death or the sight of the peaceful librarian tearing through the metal army ruthlessly I didn't want her to see.

The gadgets noticed the SS rank mage and some deviated from their prior objective of my demise to rush after her.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" A lethal swipe of my hand summoned more of the dark green chains that punched through steel as if it were butter.

My hand clenched over my chest, my linker core was running dry I had no more than five minutes left airborne. A dull ache had taken over my body, protesting at the low mana reserves.

"Yuuno, you have to get out of there!"

"I can't." I admitted simply.

"They're after me."

With those words I turned my back to her and summoned one last set of the chains, sending them forward on a suicidal last attack. Dozens more fell, explosions shattering the air. The dull ache was now a sharp stabbing in my chest.

I turned and out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the last gadgets preparing to fire.

_Hurry up and fire goddammit!_ I thought with uncharacteristic impatience. _End it all…_

Then I noticed its trajectory. _No…_

A flash of adrenaline granted me enough strength to perform a short-range teleport. Linker core howling, I flashed between Hayate and the gadget just as it fired. With no barrier jacket and no mana for any kind of shield, pure agony slammed through me. My soft intake of breath was enough for Hayate to whip around. Her eyes widened in shock. She raised her hand as if to catch me.

"Yuu…no?"

I looked downwards. Scarlet blossomed across my chest staining my shirt. I looked at my childhood friend through my remaining pain-blurred eye and smiled happily. She was okay.

With a peaceful smile I finally closed my remaining eye and fell into the long awaited blissful darkness.

X

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

_****Please don't shoot me!****_

_****R&R and I might put the next chapter up early!****_

_**I rewrote the fight scene to introduce the corrupted magic that Axel uses.**  
><em>


	4. The Axel Siblings

**Alright! I do not own Yuuno but I do own the Axels. I am proud to say I own practically all the Axels except for the original ones created by my brother.**

**Thanks for reveiwing! I want to thank a lot of people so I'll List all the ones I can remember right now, don't be mad If I forget to put you in. Thank you:**

**-Pika318  
><strong>

**-Seeker90  
><strong>

**-CrimsonHeresy  
><strong>

**-chad001  
><strong>

**-ARCtheElite (I know I'm trying to fix it)  
><strong>

**-Pray For Eternal Blaze  
><strong>

**-Nanya  
><strong>

**-wedgegeck  
><strong>

**-taichidecade  
><strong>

**-Archon1**

**-Nyamu (I agree, Yuuno needs more fics)**

X

**The first part is from Hayate's point of veiw and her reactions to seeing Yuuno**

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

_**The Axel Siblings   
><strong>_

My eyes widened in disbelief and horror.

"Yuu…no?"

He looked down at the scarlet blossoming across his chest, looked up again and smiled. Half his face a bloody mess I could still see his pleased smile as he closed his remaining eye. Like a marionette whose strings had been cut he plummeted suddenly, accelerating to his certain death. Terror pushed me to a lightning dive as I dove after his falling body.

With a rush of relief my arms hugged him tight and stopped his fall. He was heavy but I refused to drop him. Crimson was staining my armour but I didn't care.

The gadgets turned unconcerned, their job done. Something in my normally logical mind snapped. A fierce rage took over me. They hurt him. They were going to pay.

Still hugging my childhood friend I raised a single hand. The Tome of the Night Sky appeared before me flipping to my requested page. A purple aria blazed to life before my palm.

"Bloody Dagger."

With a slicing sweep of my palm, the projectiles shot forward, homing instantly onto the deadly machines. Explosions shook the sky, annihilating the ones who had hurt my friend. As quickly as It appeared my anger faded.

"Yuuno-kun! Yuuno-kun! Please wake up!"

His body remained limp as I shook him frantically.

_Hayate!_ My knights clamored my head. _What's going on? What happened?_

They must have felt my rage. Tears dripped onto my fallen friend. How could I put into words this hole that was gaping in my heart? After I had pulled him up from the depths of the Chasm some fool had wrested the choice from both our hands and shoved him over. I had just saved him, for this to happen?!

_Sh-shamal…he's…Yuuno's…_

I couldn't bring myself to say the word.

_I'm coming._ The knight of the Lake echoed reassuringly.

I hugged his body close to me. When I had come after him he was in terrible shape.

_A few minutes after the alarm had gone off I was flying down the street searching for Yuuno anxiously. He was in no shape to defend himself I had thought. He must still be exhausted. What I failed to realize at this time was that someone like him, who had been following the same sleepless pattern for nearly a decade, a regular full night's sleep was enough to fully recharge him. I could hear the sound of fighting. Gadgets littered the street. Buildings bore massive craters. I turned the corner and froze._

_ Standing alone in the sky amidst the steel holocaust was Yuuno. His coat in tatters and stained with blood. Flames of destruction raged around him giving him a hellish appearance. He had a handful of dark, forbidding looking chains in each hand. _

_ I had never seen those before. With a yank, he sent the lengths of chains screaming through the machines. The sheer devastation from the attack was something I had never seen Yuuno do before. _

_ He dropped the chains with a grimace and raised an arm. A pentagramic magic circle appeared instead of his usual one, to my surprise. More chains burst from the aria to entangle three more units and send them to their fiery doom. One approached from behind, seeking to ram the Librarian. I opened my mouth to shout a warning. Without turning, he casually backhanded the machine, sending it careening into a building. _

_ I could briefly make out interlocking green runes encasing his arm before they faded. I was nearly there..._

"_Yuuno!"_

_"NO, Hayate! Get out of here!" He turned with a look of desperation._

_I inhaled sharply. Blood coated the right side of his face, dripping onto his sweat stained shirt. Bloody lines from bullet grazes crossed across his bare forearms, his sleeves torn._

_Some of the gadgets deviated from attacking him and went after me. A ferocious snarl came from my normally peaceful friend. _

"_DON'T TOUCH HER!" _

_And brought his hand down like an executioner's scythe. More of the strange dark green chains rose up, tearing away the machines. _

_I saw his hand clench on his chest and he wobbled in the air, fear filled me. What was wrong with him?_

_For a brief moment I saw pain on his face, then it was gone. But his clenched hand never moved from over his heart._

"Hayate!"

I raised my head and was greeted by the comforting sight of The Knight of The Lake. She rushed to me concern and worry etched in her face at my bloodstained armor. Her eyes widened at the body in my arms.

"Shamal…Is he…"

She gave him a quick look over.

"He's alive for now but needs treatment urgently."

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

Shamal pov…

I rested down the ravaged body of the Head Librarian and glanced at the door. Hayate was sitting outside, nearly in tears. Honestly, I was confused, I didn't think Yuuno was this close to her to make her so upset. That was not the problem though.

That intense wave of anger she had emitted shook all the Wolkenritter.

It scared us more than we would care to admit. It was like having a brutal and unpleasant flashback to the Book of Darkness. I turned my eyes to the bloodstained body in the hospital bed and listed the major injuries to distract myself.

His eye was mangled beyond repair. A cybernetic would be needed to replace that.

A shot directly in the back at high power with no barrier jacket. It was amazing he was still alive. His internal organs had suffered damage from the shot, mainly his heart. It was still fighting valiantly but might give out any second

Linker core. Severely drained. He might never walk again, much less be able to cast magic. His life as the Librarian of the Infinity Library would be over.

With a sigh I rolled up my sleeves and set to work, preparing myself for several grueling hours of surgery just to stabilize the unlucky mage.

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

Many dimensions away a black haired man jerked with shock.

A long dark overcoat was belted closed to protect his chest. Tied stylishly around his neck to accent his barrier jacket was a pristine white neck cloth. His fingerless gloves were dusted with a fine layer of sand as he ran it through his black hair with a distracted air. The desert area he was currently occupying was NOT to his liking.

His sister a young girl, no older than eighteen, eyed him quizzically with an innocent amber gaze.

Her barrier jacket was a lot more complex. Unlike most girls she preferred long faded jeans for ease of movement. To protect her left hand a long white glove, scuffed with use, was belted snugly around her wrist. Guarding her preferred hand for spellcasting was a short fingerless ebony glove stained with burn marks.

A short, half skirt was belted around her waist with attached armour to offer some protection to her legs but not hinder speed. A long scarlet scarf trailed from her neck.

In response, her elder brother held out a black tome in his dark gloved hand. Inlaid into the cover was a single gold rune that resembled an 'A' on top of a 'V'.

"He returned the page."

"Yuuno?" She asked, just to make sure. After all, they had never really lent anyone else a page.

He nodded then grimaced but another unseen voice spoke up "Someone tried to assassinate him."

"Wha-?"

"He used the page and he's badly hurt."

"Let's go help him then!" The girl declared. "He saved our life from that stasis, and _then_ he stopped me from dying again!"

"True." The Master of the Hades admitted, mind drifting back to that horrible memory…

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

_Master of Hades' Pov (Axel)…_

_Axel…_ The ghostly voice echoed hauntingly through my semi conscious mind.

_mm…?_ I mumbled drowsily in response.

_AXEL!_ Hades roared.

_Woah! Yeah, I'm awake!_

_An Intruder woke me up. I'm activating Alexa's Inferno._

Without any instruction on my part, I felt a warm fire light around me, warming my frozen limbs.

"Expanding. Utilizing Inferno."

I could hear Hades now. That was good. The sudden warmth blossomed into a fierce explosion, returning control to my imprisoned body. I staggered free of the ice, relishing the deep breaths of oxygen.

A sudden thud caused me to whirl around in panic, memory finally registering the danger. Alexa was curled in a fetal position, clutching her stomach as blood once more began to flow from the deep gash. I have never felt fear so keenly as that moment when I looked down and saw my only sibling lying in a pool of her own blood.

I knelt quickly, my stomach queasy at the sight of so much blood. I had never been a warrior before I took up the Tome.

"Alexa!" I called, hoping she was still able to respond.

To my relief, she rolled over, her dimming eyes fixed on my face. I squeezed her shoulder with as much encouragement as I could manage, assessing the extent of the injury.

"Come on, stay with me…!"

It was deep and bloody and possibly fatal. The guardian of this page had been particularly fierce, taking the form of a deadly tiger. The swipe had been ill timed, a frantic swing as it began to fade.

"Hades, please!" I practically begged to the floating Dark Tome. "Page fifty three!"

"But, Axel we-"

"JUST DO IT!" I roared desperately.

The Tome flipped open, pages fluttering in an invisible breeze. It stopped on a page.

"I'm sorry," The sentient Device stated in a choked voice. "…The page…the one she…we…fought for…It isn't…"

The Device took the equivalent of a deep breath. "Its not a healing spell Axel."

All my hope shattered. We hadn't retrieved any of Hades' medical spells yet. The latest page had been nothing but a powerful ice spell. I punched the ground.

"This can't be happening!" I howled.

An unsure voice quavered in the silence. "E-excuse me?"

My head whipped around instantly targeting the new threat. To be honest, he looked pretty wimpy, but I know better than to judge people on physical appearance.

A scuffed green overcoat was draped over his shoulders. Honestly, by that coat alone he was good in my books. Someone with that good taste couldn't be evil! His green eyes were lit with an uneasy determination.

"I'm a trained medic." He enunciated clearly, approaching in cautious steps.

I gave him a quick nod of assent and he rushed to kneel by his patient. With a swift glance, he began muttering, adjusting his glasses with one hand. Brushing his ridiculously long blond hair out of his face, a comforting green glow surrounded Alexa's failing body.

The wound closed up, repairing itself as best as it could manage. Alexa's eyes opened, finally clear of pain and I let out a breath I hadn't even known I was holding. She was all right. She'd live…

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

Present...

Yuuno of course, being a healing mage, instantly took charge. Working whatever healing spells he had at his disposal he had managed to repair the fatal damage to a fairly manageable level.

We had introduced ourselves and even I could see his rabid curiosity about who we were and what we were doing imbedded in six feet of ice. Making one of my famous snap decisions that usually made everybody involved feel like killing me, I loaned him page one hundred and eleven in thanks.

Alexa argued of course. After all, that page had developed a guardian, which was quite troublesome. She nearly lost and arm and leg to the thing in order to retrieve the page.

"Alright." I nodded decisively. "I want you to back me up from afar, I'll sneak in. Have a teleport ready because the amount of magic I'm going to have to use will definitely set off alarms."

"You can't go by yourself!" She protested.

"We'll be fine." The Hades Tome assured her. "I'm with him after all."

"BEEP."

The white staff held loosely in Alexa's grip made another noise, the gold belkan cross head flashing to draw attention.

"Pardon me, but page two hundred and twenty six is approaching." The device announced in a polite feminine voice.

"Alright CrossFyre," Alexa grinned shouldering the staff. She tightened her grip around the bandages wrapped around the shaft and tapped the blue end against her hand. "What type?"

"Ear-"

The ground shuddered violently, nearly knocking the us off our feet. I caught Alexa's arm to prevent her faceplanting. With a heave, I catapulted her into the air.

"Get airborne!" Hades roared as the sand beneath us gave way.

With a final kick to the ground I dashed away, shedding the cumbersome sand from my greatcoat, the black book that was my companion easily keeping up.

A monstrous circular maw with rows of deadly shark teeth rose from the earth followed by a long sinuous body. Rippling brown lengths on the massive snakelike worm rose up from the sand, easily plowing through the ground.

"Holy Hades!" Alexa yelped. "A Thresher Worm?!"

"Less talking more blowing things up!" I yelled.

"Take your own advice!" She tossed back, a scarlet and gold belkan triangle blooming to life beneath her feet.

"Yeah, yeah..." I grumbled under my breath, motioning to Hades.

The dark book flipped open to a certain page. I glanced at the spell before doing a double take.

"Hades!" I whined. "You can't be serious!"

"What? You haven't touched this one yet!"

"Its an ice spell!"

"Think of it as target practice."

"A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!" Alexa roared.

I turned back to see dozens of scarlet shots exploding on the worm's thick hide. Her staff pointed firmly towards its target as more glowing bullets rushed at the beast. Multitudes more lined up behind her, awaiting their turn.

The thing screamed a high pitched feral scream, coils lashing about in its pain.

My eyebrow rose. The thing apparently did not like being shot at. The Thresher lunged at her without warning, recovering surprisingly fast. I let out a startled yell at the deceptively quick Page guardian, hoping to give her some warning.

My worries were not needed as a well placed set of her Fyre shots down the worm's gaping mouth gave her enough time to dart out of the way.

"Alright then." I conceded grudgingly to Hades, keeping a watchful eye on my younger sibling's movements.

Calling my ever volatile magic to bare, the massive pentagonal array of my particular magic style spun into existence without much trouble. The black and gold flashed a brief ice blue as I began to chant.

The page guardian swiveled its head, feeling the familiar buildup of energy from the book it had once been a part of. Taking calming deep breaths to prevent the spell going wild I allowed Hades to fine tune the potentially deadly casting.

One missed word, one botched syllable and I would be a black smear on the landscape. Lovely, isn't it?

The massive snakelike beast rushed towards me in an attempt to devour us before the casting was done.

I gave a mental whoop, eying the approaching beast with a feral grin. _I'm playing chicken with a Thresher!_

_Now let's see who's the chicken, hmm?_

A race to see who would falter in their charge first. I wasn't going to lose. The pressure building in my head signaled the tremendous buildup of magic. With a maniac grin I pointed a single finger at the unstoppable behemoth mere meters away.

"Chicken."

Having no need of chanting, A wide blast of ice blue energy almost as wide as the vile worm itself exploded from the array. Despite being the caster, the sheer force of the beam threw me violently backwards. Only Hades extended barrier spell prevented me from flying further. As it was, the impact jarred my bones painfully.

I experienced a few agonizing minutes of being between a rock and a hard place. The force of the spell ground me backwards into Hades ruthless shield. Despite the pain of being crushed, I was grateful for his barrier. If he had not halted my unstable plunge I might have lost control over the spell's aiming.

...and Hade- er- God knows WHERE it could have ended up.

But it still hurt like a BIT-

Ow.

"Now Axel," Hades scolded smugly. "You promised you wouldn't curse when Alexa was around."

"I can't even swear in my own HEAD anymore?!" I growled.

"I can still hear you you know."

"But SHE can't!"

"Touche."

I clenched my fist, abruptly halting the beam. The thrumming of magic in my blood roared furiously. It wanted more destruction, to channel more earth rending power.

_Rip, tear, shred...destroy them destroydestroydestroydestroy des-_

I clenched my eyes firmly shut, concentrating on bringing up my mental defenses. Slowly the demonic impulse to kill everything in sight began to quiet. Simply put, El Hazardian magic was not meant for regular human bodies and despite my compatibility with it...

It did not appreciate my overusing of its godlike power.

Think of it like an entity. A large shapeless entity with slightly murderous tendencies and a wish to fight even the worlds themselves to return back to its homeland. Something had tainted it when Hades had fallen from El Hazard but without the former Knight's memories we were at a loss as to what it was.

The dark tome only vaguely recalled twin glowing scarlet eyes gone insane with loss and a deep eternal hatred.

That was it.

Then all he felt was darkness until he finally opened his eyes to an innocent young girl who had touched his cover by accident. Surprisingly enough it was Alexa, not I who woke him from his millennium of slumber.

We had come quite far since then.

I opened my eyes to see a large worm iceberg halted uncomfortably close to my nose.

"Oh, look." Hades snorted dryly. "A wormsicle."

"Do you want that page or not?" Alexa snapped irritably at the tome, giving me a searching glance.

"Are you alright? You overloaded again, didn't you?"

I nodded. Lying was pointless. While the corrupt magic could not reach her, she could still tell when it struck with uncanny accuracy.

"I'll seal this one then. Ribbons of binding!"

Tendrils of scarlet ribbons burst from her array and began to wrap the large beast. The thing was quite large so it took some time before she could get the whole thing wrapped.

"Mistress, Sealing is complete. Purifying page two hundred and twenty seven."

There was a flash of light and a harmless page floated innocently where the monstrous guardian had been. Without prompting, Hades opened himself and the page slotted neatly in. The book flashed a dark purple and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Oh, that feels better..."

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

_**Introducing the resident Axel siblings! Please reveiw! Tell me if you like them! I think I did quite a lot of their backstory. Plz inform me If I need to add more for It to make sense.**_


	5. Bring me to Life

**Sorry for the long delay. I was stranded at the beach without a computer for a month. I advise people to got back and reread over Yuuno's fight because I included the 'side effect' of Axel's magic into his battle with the devices as well as Hayate's confused reaction to it in the following chapter. **

** I rewrote alot and added bits here and there so it might be better if you just reread from the start but if you're too lazy at least read the fight otherwise you would be a little lost when Yuuno and Axel talk about it.  
><strong>

**X  
><strong>

**Enjoy! The fic is nearly done!  
><strong>

X

* * *

><p><em><strong>Bring me to Life<strong>_

X

X

Shamal slumped against the wall, exhausted. Several other doctors had joined in her difficult task of bringing the Librarian back to life but the time taken to just ensure he would last long enough for the cybernetics crew to get at him was immense. They had spent nearly six hours in there! The knight sighed, sinking gratefully into a corridor chair. As the last to leave the room, she had to activate all of the sensors around Yuuno's prone form to alert medical personnel if he went into further shock.

Next to the disheveled doctor, Hayate had fallen asleep in her waiting chair, drooling slightly. Through her haze of exhaustion Shamal smiled fondly at her Mistress.

Out of the blue, Klarwind beeped.

"Mistress, you have a call."

"Tell them I'm busy." She sighed in annoyance.

"Its Axel."

Shamal straightened, her eyes widening.

"What?"

"The Master of Hades is requesting to talk to you." Klarwind repeated.

The knight of the Lake nervously flattened down her hair and attempted to look respectable.

"Let him through."

A screen with a familiar face appeared before her.

"Yo!" The charismatic man grinned.

"Hello Axel," She groaned. "What do you want? In case you couldn't tell I just came from, like, six hours of meatball surgery."

His face grew serious. "About that…I need some help to get in to see one of your patients."

"Who?" she yawned.

He was in a very business mode now. "Yuuno Scrya."

Shamal froze mid yawn. "Why…do you need to see him?"

"Alexa and I lent him a page." He stated bluntly. "This morning it returned with a record of its usage."

"I just came from six hours of meatball surgery on Yuuno."

"He's alive?"

The doctor grimaced. "Barely. Getting shot in the face AND the chest is nothing to laugh about. The cybernetic crew will probably be up in half an hour to start hooking him up to his new eye and he's most likely going to have to replace his shoulder and half his chest."

Axel whistled. "That's pretty bad."

"Yeah. I still can't get over the fact that…you lent Yuuno a page?"

Her disbelief was defiantly warranted. The two siblings spent all their time hunting down these pages. Fighting. Suffering. Just to get their hands on those spellbook pages. For them to relinquish one was unbelievable.

"The point is, Yuuno's in critical condition from an assassination attempt, right?"

"Yeah…" The knight admitted slowly, wandering where he was going with the conversation. Asking him how he always knew these things was begging for a headache.

"I need to see him. I can repair the damage." He stated bluntly.

Shamal gaped at the screen. "You…you can't be serious. He lost a whole eye, and got shot though the chest. How can you fix that with magic?!"

"Am I laughing? Do you forget what magic I wield?" He darkly replied.

She gulped. "O-okay. I'll meet you at the lobby."

"Already there." He grinned smugly.

"Honestly," She smiled shaking her head. "One day you'll be the death of me."

"Lets hope not!" he said cheerfully and severed the connection.

Shamal stared into space and sighed fondly. Hayate shifted behind her.

"Sh…mal? Who you talkin' to?"

She patted her mistress's head. "Nobody important, Hayate, you should go back to sleep."

Muttering drowsily, she closed her eyes again and entered the realm of dreams.

Rising to her feet, The Wolkenritter Knight of the Lake began to head down the corridor. The Master of shadows was waiting. 

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

_Axel pov…_

I sat down on one of the chairs, inclining to a more comfortable position. Despite Alexa's arguing I had refused to relinquish my hair and eye colour for the sake of my disguise. I was vain goddamit! No one could touch my hair!

I pulled my hat further down, to hide my face some more. I had thrown one of my favourite brown greatcoats over my barrier jacket to not arouse suspicion.

…

Okay, well It still looked very strange but hey.

Alexa and I had spent at least half an hour casting nearly sixteen different concealment spells around my poor jacket to dull my magical signal. Having a rouge S+ rank mage running around in their base would defiantly piss off the TSAB even more. Considering they already hate my guts for using a Device that they called 'a class S lost logia, extremely dangerous', I don't exactly think they could get worse.

I allowed myself a smirk.

Besides I think they just hated me because the Hades wouldn't work for them.

Axel: 1 TSAB: 0

Eying the pretty blond knight entering the lobby I rose smoothly and walked over. She glanced around, apparently searching for me. I tapped her shoulder. She turned around as if to tell the person to bugger off, then she saw me.

She giggled.

"What?" I said defensively.

"What are you wearing?!" She snorted.

Feeling hurt, I huddled down in my coat. "This just so happens to me my favourite coat!"

Her eyebrow rose. "It's a classy coat, I'll give you that, but regular people do NOT wear two greatcoats over each other."

"I didn't want to disengage my Barrier jacket, it still has the disruptor."

"Fair enough." she allowed. "But those two colours clash horribly!"

My Barrier Jacket had an added ability of rendering me invisible to any sensors, magic or otherwise. In an operation like this, stealth was vital. My 'disruptors' were a necessity.

I pouted. "I think they look fine!"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course you would think that. Now come on before we lose more time."

"Actually," I admitted. "It would be best if you didn't come. I can't risk you being discovered helping me."

She opened her mouth to argue but I stopped her with a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Shamal, I am not dragging The Wolkenritter and your Mistress into this. I refuse to do so. What room is he in?"

"Axel…"

"What room?" I added, softer.

"105." She muttered, looking at the floor.

"Cheer up." I smiled. "And get some distance from here."

I brushed past her with a dramatic flair of my greatcoat. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I set off down the hallway being met with no opposition.

"Alexa, deal with the cameras."

_Already done Nii-san._

"Good job." I acknowledged.

From here on out It would only be my shadow disruptor hiding me from sight.

The trip was surprisingly uneventful; No one stopped the dark stranger walking their halls. I knew the door as soon as I saw it. It didn't help that The Mistress of the book of the Night Sky was sleeping outside the room.

I slipped past her with ease and pushed open the door quietly.

To put it lightly, He was a wreck. Half his face was encased in bandages and his chest had been padded with enough gauze to wrap an army. Various bags of liquids were attached to his arm, one of them the dark scarlet of blood. His magic signal was weak and fading, that wasn't good.

The person lying on the bed before me was a far cry from the energetic youth who had quizzed me endlessly on my origins when we had first met. It hurt to see someone so courageous laid low like this. He had fought hard against insurmountable odds, without device, without barrier jacket, without backup.

Alone.

Searching for a place to die.

On a hill of blood, sweat and tears.

I glanced at the door. Sitting out there was a girl with a broken heart, waiting for him to wake up. She was emotionally and mentally strained, praying to whatever god that was listening that Yuuno would return to the land of the living.

I grinned smugly. I wouldn't want to disappoint her, now would I?

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

_Yuuno..._

Death seemed remarkably…quiet. I just seemed to be floating, weightlessly, in an eternity of blank nothingness. I could not describe it because it was too…, well,…how exactly do you describe nothing?

It was like a blank page, wiped spotlessly clean. All the blemishes eliminated to leave a soft flowing white. It seemed to be snowing.

I felt better than I had ever felt in a long time. My numerous injuries had faded to nothing. All the darkness and worries of my mind had been erased. I was at peace.

I could lie there forever in the blissful warmth.

Raising up my arm, I could feel ethereal snowflakes melting on my skin. It was an odd feeling. Snow. Snow brought up bad memories for me but this snow was just too soothing for the horrors to plague me anymore.

Reinforce had died in snow. She sacrificed herself with a pleased and happy smile. Suddenly, I remembered my promise to Hayate. I sighed, regret colouring my tone.

"Sorry Hayate…I guess…I just couldn't hang on long enough."

That was, perhaps, my only regret. Making Hayate sad. I did not regret anything else. Even my Death I was proud of. Knights always wished to fall in battle, yet a mere Librarian had been granted that same honour. It was probably strange, but If I could talk to the assassin right now, I would probably shake his hand.

Something brushed past my face and on reflex I caught it.

Huh?

It was a feather. A soft, white feather. In confusion I looked up. I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes.

What seemed to be an angel was floating down through the white.

The tall lean man landed besides me, white gray wings widespread. The person was clad in a strange black and gray uniform with a familiar emblazoned rune on his collar. A single triangle shaped scar that looked like it came from a close call from a blade had been slashed on his cheek.

He looked more like a knight than a supposed angel with his armoured boots and gloves that more resembled a barrier jacket.

Pity in his smoky gray eyes the stranger let out a surprisingly human sigh. Shaking his white locks from his face, he howled upwards, shattering the peace.

"I found him!"

Feeling totally lost, I watched on in puzzlement as a second, darker figure, descended. Then comprehension dawned.

"Hey, Yuuno, Its been awhile."

"Axel? What are you doing here?"

Sure enough, floating before me was the enigmatic Master of the Hades Tome in all his dark glory. With a shark grin, he answered.

"Why, I'm here to save your life!"

I sighed at his outrageous statement. "I'm already dead."

He frowned, face becoming serious. "No, you're not."

"W-what?" I stuttered in surprise. Not dead? But that means…

The white haired man sent Axel a glare. "What he means is that you aren't dead YET."

"I'm dying though?"

They both nodded.

"Who are you?" I asked the white stranger, my brain finally catching up.

"Oh." He muttered, embarrassed. "You don't recognize me, do you?"

"Er, I'm sorry, have we met before?" I answered, thoroughly lost.

"Not in this form we haven't," He chuckled "I'm Hades."

Silence.

"Wait…what? You're the Tome?"

"Yep." He grinned smugly, amused by my reaction.

"As in," I tried to clarify, not sure if I should believe what this man was saying. "The dark book about yea high?" I gestured.

"What, did you think I was always stuck in that book?" He gave me a weird look like If I was the crazy one.

"But…how?"

Axel sighed. "Just think of him like Reinforce, an admin."

I nodded, that made sense. After all, If the Book of the Night sky was based loosely off the Hades it would make sense for the Hades to have an Admin as well.

"By the way, Axel..." I asked curiously. "I used the page. Is that really what your magic feels like?"

The dark mage grimaced. "Pretty much, yes. The first time always hurts the worst. But after that there's no need for chants for the binds and small shots. For the higher up spells it never goes away."

I stared at the man in something akin to awe. "You...withstand all that? How many times has it happened?"

He shrugged. "I lost track somewhere around fifty."

I gaped at the casual admittance. "What the hell kind of magic is this?"

"El Hazardian magic." Hades input quietly.

"...magic...from the lost and ancient El Hazard?" The Archeologist part of me began squealing.

"Yep."

"Wow! That's amaz-wait hold on a minute...why is it always trying to kill its caster?"

Axel grinned and spread his arms wide. "Welcome to the problem! We have no freaking idea!"

Hades clapped his hands together. "Moving on!"

"Oh, right. You're dying. We need to fix you."

"I'm not sure I want to go back." I admitted, freezing the pair in their tracks.

"Wh-what?" Axel squawked.

"Why?" Hades asked, face curiously blank.

I gulped. Then took a deep breath. "I have nothing left for me back there. Simply put, I was a tool to those around me. I was used to provide information to save lives. But as a tool, I have reached the end of my usefulness. Hence why someone wanted me dead. I have been disposed. My space in the world has already been filled with another. Plus…"

I held out my hand, willing my memorized calculations to life. Nothing happened.

"…My magic's gone." I finished quietly.

Silence prevailed in the quiet space. I kept my gaze on the floor. A stunning pain connected with my face. I reeled backwards, my hand going up to my aching jaw automatically.

"Wha-"

Axel was standing over me, his face contorted in rage. His fist was still raised from the punch he connected to my jaw.

"How…How could you speak like that!" He growled. "You still have something back there! Your friends, your family!"

An eerie calmness had settled on my bones. "I have no friends." I replied coldly. "Or family. I was adopted."

Another blow connected with the other side of my face.

"That's a lie, and you know it!" He snarled. "What about that girl? The Mistress of the book of the Night Sky? Doesn't she mean anything to you?"

I was floored. I couldn't say anything in my defense anymore. Axel knew my weakness and was pushing it hard.

"A-ah…yes…"

"Are you going to just leave her there?!" He roared. "You might've saved her this time but what of the next time? Or the time after that?"

I jerked. "She has…the Wolkenritter…" I feebly tried. "And Nanoha…and Fate…"

Axel puffed up even more. "DO YOU KNOW WHERE SHE IS RIGHT NOW?!"

I shook my head mutely, unwilling to trust myself to speak.

Axel pointed dramatically. "She's been outside YOUR door for the past whoever knows how long! She's sitting there, WAITING FOR YOU TO GET UP!"

Hades rested a hand on the infuriated mage's shoulder. "I think that's enough." He murmured calmly. "Alexa's getting worried."

At the mention of his sibling's name he deflated and looked away. Hades raised his calm gaze to mine. I knew he could easily see the turmoil in my eyes but he chose not to comment on it.

"Its your choice." He simply stated.

I sighed, taking one last glance at the place I had come to call a heaven in my short time there. When faced with such a dilemma what could I do but respond? It seemed that the world still had need of me.

"I guess my eternal rest can be postponed a little longer." I smiled crookedly.

Hades nodded once, respect shinning in his eyes. He knew what this was costing me. He knew the pain I was facing of going back when I had finally been freed.

"Just remember," He smiled. "Always remember who you're fighting for."

_Hayate…_

"If you live on for them, the pain doesn't matter anymore."

_Thank you..._

The white was becoming blinding. I could feel the mental pain of my return lessening already.

_…I'm coming…_

I braced myself for it but what I received was ten times worse.

Agony exploded throughout my body and ravaged my limbs. Any coherent thought vanished in the maelstrom of pain.

With a gasp, I opened my eyes. Through my bleary vision I could make out Axel wobbling by my bedside.

"It…It is done…" He croaked.

The door slammed open, I could hear commotion but all my senses was focused toward the staggering figure before me. He wasn't supposed to be here! If I was in the hospital, It was squarely in the middle of Mid Childa! In his state, they'd catch him, and it'd all be my fault! I tried to reach out to him, horror beginning to seep in.

"Ax…el…" I wheezed, my chest tight.

"Alexa, get him out of here!" Hades roared, back in his book.

Scarlet light flickered to life and within seconds, the failing body of the only Mage capable of the miracles of EL Hazardian magic, disappeared.

Arms wrapped tightly around me, surprising me with their desperate force.

"Yuuno!"

Tears stained the face of the Commander's face. At that moment, she was just a girl, not a commander, not a powerful mage, Just a girl.

I smiled crookedly with what was left of my face. " Hay…ate…"

She tried to stifle her sobs but failed. "Don't you ever do that again!" She bawled, thumping my shoulder repeatedly in the process.

_Axel is fine._ Hades voice, echoed suddenly in my head. _Worry not._

I relaxed and closed my eye. I felt light. Something began to beep frantically nearby. Hayate let out a strangled yelp.

"Shamal!"

I smiled. 

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

**The end? **

**Nah. I still have an epilogue. Other than that... Does anybody know what that beeping noise was?  
><strong>

**I suppose it counts as a cliffhanger in its own right. No attempting to murder the author. I might just post the epilogue in a few days to just finish the story. I don't think I can rewrite it anymore.  
><strong>

**X**

**If you see any grammar or other errors please tell me because I have no Beta.  
><strong>

**X  
><strong>

**R&R!  
><strong>


	6. Epilogue: Redeemed

**I don't own Nanoha but the El hazard magic, the Axel siblings and Hades are mine.**

**X  
><strong>

**I am updating very early cause:  
><strong>

**A) Its a short chapter  
><strong>

**and  
><strong>

**B) School is starting and If I don't post now you guys won't get it for several weeks.  
><strong>

**X  
><strong>

**Epilogue! Whoo! I'm finally done!  
><strong>

X

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

_**Epilogue: Redeemed.**_

Sunlight filtered lazily through the branches, splotching the path with comforting shadow. A squirrel scampered up the tree, ignoring the people of the park in it search for food. Just beyond the path, full blown sunshine, illuminated the park's wide grassy expanse. It was a beautiful sunny day in Mid Childa's main park with families enjoying a nice day out.

The beauty of the day was not lost on the two visitors as they made their way to a secluded section of the park. Monuments to the fallen, lovingly engraved, were scattered in the shadowed grove. The atmosphere was somber and quiet compared to the raucous laughter outside, in the more open areas.

The brown haired lady gently rested a bouquet of white lilies on the memorial and smiled fondly at the inscription.

"Thank you…Reinforce."

With a brief check on her watch, she rose with a slightly annoyed sigh and turned to her companion.

"We need to get you back to the hospital, Yuuno."

The blond shield mage smiled his good-natured, pleasant smile as Hayate rose. "We don't have to hurry, the doctors can wait."

Hayate scowled down at her wheel chair bound companion. "Last time Shamal had to fend off the hordes of annoyed doctors. Let's not do that again."

Commandeering The Librarian's wheelchair, the pair started down the path. A comfortable silence settled between them before Hayate broke it.

"Its hard to believe…its been only two weeks…"

Yuuno smiled faintly. "I have to thank you for that back there. You gave me the courage to live again."

Hayate stuttered incoherently, her face heating up. "I-I didn't do anything!"

"If you hadn't gotten Shamal there in time, you know I would've-"

The distressed girl gripped the handles of the chair tightly. "I know." She admitted quietly. "I know."

When Yuuno had woken up his body went into shock. His body just couldn't handle the influx of healing magic in his weakened state. For a few terrifying moments, his heart had stopped. It was only Hayate's quick actions that had let him last long enough for the doctors to get at him.

They were surprised at what that unknown healing spell had done to him. He still had scars but the wounds themselves were no longer there. He was still weak though and could barely sit up without gritting his teeth in pain. The doctors couldn't find the source of his pain, since his injuries were technically healed and were pulling out their hair over it. They eventually put it down to stress on his body.

As for his linker core…

That was not pleasant.

Shamal had to personally dig into his chest and repair it manually. It hurt like HELL but now he at least had a chance of using magic again. She had refused to do it before because of the extent of his injuries and for the fact that attempting the operation might have sent him over the edge.

The doctors were skeptical about him ever being able to use magic again but he could feel the fresh thrumming of magic through his body and knew it would never leave him.

Yuuno half turned, the impressive scars on the right side of his face showing clearly.

"Hayate?"

She shook her head. "Its nothing."

The barrier mage smiled to himself, feeling the easy weight of the pentagram that still dwelt within him waiting to be called. It seemed that his chains didn't leave him at all. They were dormant but in time and recovery they would soon reawaken to him. No one knew of this, not even Hayate.

And perhaps...

...perhaps he would finally leave the library?

Maybe, maybe not. All things change with time.

...but those touched by El Hazard...

...perhaps will never fade.

Yuuno turned his gaze to the end of the path where three figures were waiting for him.

_I will live my life without any more silly regrets. When I face Hades again I want to be able to look him in the eye with a clear heart. Thank you Axel, Hades and Alexa for this gift of life. _

_I will not waste it again. _

He rested his scarred hand over her own. "At least…everything's alright now."

Illuminated by the sun, Young Vivio bounced excitedly, awaiting her 'Uncle's' arrival. Standing tall next to her were the two imposing figures of the TSAB's two most well known mages, the Ace of Aces and the Black Lightning herself. All three were grinning as they spotted their friends making their way down the path.

Yuuno just stared at them, silhouetted by the sun it almost seemed like a dream. A true grin of happiness spread across his face as he realized that for once, everything was all right.

X

* * *

><p>X<p>

X

**Yay, I'm done! This was actually quite fun!**

**If I feel like it, and If people want me to I could write a sequel.  
><strong>

**I was thinking maybe a couple years (or One year) into the future where he's taken up field work and confronts the assassin that tried to kill him...  
><strong>

**X  
><strong>

**maybe.  
><strong>

**X  
><strong>

**But I won't write if people don't want it. I have many fics in my writing folder that I never posted so maybe I should start on those instead.  
><strong>


End file.
